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Monday, December 19, 2005

Old Beng Went To Bukit Timah Hill

lim peh ka li kong

Me and my cha-bo-lang sometimes go for our Sunday morning stroll at the following few places : Botanical Garden, West Coast Park, Sunset way and Bukit Timah Hill provided we wake up early. Many times, Old Beng could not wake up early and will just hope that my cha-bo-lang will let me sleep longer. Sunday morning leh!

Yesterday, we went to Bukit Timah Hill although we woke up a little bit later than usual but the weather was fine without sun, very cooling.

When we reached the carpark, it was full as usual and many vehicles were parking along the road side illegally. I felt pity for the residents who stay there.

Luck was with us cos when we reached the carpark, we found an empty lot, heng ah, don't have to waste time waiting for lot.

When we got out of our car, me saw some monkeys sitting on top of the parked vehicles in the carpark and 1 monkey even shit on the top of a car. Ai-ya, forgot to take down the car plate numbers to buy 4D, who knows, shit is luck, according to the Chinese.

I heard of a sad incident which happened at the foot of Bukit Timah Hill not too long ago. The monkeys have been coming out from the forest and started to go around the carpark area to look for food. As monkeys move very fast and sometimes it is quite dangerous because drivers could not see them dashing across their moving vehicles.

Heard that 1 monkey was knocked down by a car and it died as it was a fatal knock. The passer-by who were there saw that a whole gang of monkeys all crowded round the dead monkey and 1 of them (probably the mother) was hugging and carrying the dead monkey, crying loudly and letting out loud shrieks mourning the lost of its child.

Anyway, back to our sunday stroll. Me and my cha-bo-lang climbed up the slope and boy the slope was quite steep man, probably at a 45 degrees inclination. Old Beng me managed to climb up with my cha-bo-lang but to be honest, quite siong though, think me getting old already.

We finally reached the top and on our way down, we saw a path at the side of the hill - Catchment Path and we decided to take the route and see where it would lead to. Anyway, how big can Bukit Timah Hill be?

The path wasn't too difficult to walk as the roots of the trees formed a natural fleets of steps and with the cool breeze and surrounded by so many trees and strolling with loved one was in fact a very great feeling. Halfway down, we saw a direction board showing the routes of the Catchment Path we were walking, hmmn looked alright to me.

After descending for about 20 minutes, we came to a big open space with just low-grass field. We saw many grasshoppers hopping and flying around us, guess I have not seen so many of them since my childhood time.

We continued to walk for another 30 minutes and saw a small road with a signboard indicating that it was a bicycle route and a warning sign to the people who would like to walk on the route as the cyclists sometimes do cycle in very fast speed and the route was indeed narrow.

My cha-bo-lang asked me whether we should take the bicycle route or walked back to where we started, the Catchment Path?

I was not sure why I was stubborn but told her that we would continue to head forward and I was sure that we would be able to get out of the "quiet" area but in my heart, I was actually just pushing my luck. And yes, after walking for another 15 minutes, we came across a road, no longer the field road but road for vehicles with road chevron and road-sigh and saw a police car sped past us.

While I was standing at the side trying to figure out which direction to walk, my cha-bo-lang told me that there was a monkey just above my head. When I turned around to the direction she was pointing, I saw 1 huge monkey staring hard at me less than one foot away from me. I slowly turned my face away and walked away calmly.

Actually my heart was racing like hell cos I was bitten by a monkey when I was a small boy and that attack landed me in hospital thus I have this phobia towards monkey.

We continued to walk along the road but it was so deserted that not even a car drove pass us and I started to have the thinking that we were lost! Of course, in front of my cha-bo-lang, I pretended to be calm and cool if not, sure lose face one.

Then, we heard the motor-sound of a car coming from the road behind us and it was a van. I quickly waved for the driver to halt and asked him where the road will lead us to and which direction we should head to get back to the entrance of Bukit Timah Hill.

We told him that we were walking in Bukit Timah Hill and the next minute, we landed there without the slightest idea of where we were. He told us that we were rather far away from Bukit Timah Hill and he offered to give us a lift. We told him that it would be fine for us to walk but the expression on his face told us that it was not a very good idea so both of us hopped into his van.

He drove for about 20 minutes before we reached Bukit Timah Hill and he dropped us at where we parked our car.

My cha-bo-lang teased me the whole day for been such a sotong and got lost in Bukit Timah Hill.

I really have to thank the driver, Mr Lim, who was so kind to give us a lift although he wasn't heading towards the direction of Bukit Timah Hill.

19 Comments:

Looks like a fun adventure you had :) i remember climbing up that steep slope. i found it quite siong too ;p my earliest blog entry was about my walk at the HSBC tree-top walk and around macritchie reservoir. One of the trails there leads to Bukit Timah Hill. Someday i may try that trail too. Maybe when i retire. Ha, ha, ha... :D

Mr Lim, how are you? I don't like monkeys too. It's a sad thing as these monkeys are lazy and unwilling to look for their own food in the forest due to human beings'fault of constantly feeding them with all kinds of food.Anyway, you have a pleasant day,won't ya!

Ling n PebbleI also saw another sign refraining owners to bring their dogs to Bukit Timah Hill, so if you are going there, pls leave pebble at home.

SpinneeYeah, indeed :)

XorpheusHe drove off after he dropped us at the carpark even before I could ask for his contact numbers but we thanked him for his kindness rendered to us.

BlueappleHuh? You fell!?! Serious or not, did you roll down the steep slope or someone managed to grab you and stopped you from rolling down!?! Think you should go more often and train up your muscle and stamina.

I went there before and saw many monkeys there, next time pls say 'Hello' for me to the monkeys ;)

It is a good activity approaching nature and discover its beauties, I believe that you did enjoy your stroll not only walking with your loved one on the natural path, but met a kind Singaporean who drove you out of the maze ;)

Hiking is fun when the weather is nice. The weather in Singapore is seldom nice anyway. When i did my trekking around MacRitchie Reservoir, it was extremely warm and humid. Afterall, it is a tropical rainforest. And it was also a warm day. The idea of hiking may be fun. But physically, it's definitely not what i would consider comfortable :)

kekeke... bukit timah hill.. One of my favourite place to go... i used to go there every week when i'm living in west side... but seldom go ever since i moved here... if u guys dun like the slope then can try the small routes into the forest... its much better than the main road but it takes a longer time.

why not like that, we don't talk abt what Himalaya, we try something smaller like Ophir or Gudang or KK, if not smaller we go Pasir Labar 'charge' pengkang or elephant hill can liao n when u want to go range, huh?????

my uncle just told me that he had a fright the other day when a bear lookalike human appeared at his doorstep while he was napping at Bukit Timah Forest. The 'bear' went shaky legs when he saw my uncle but luckily his cha bo lang managed to pull him away...

btw, why never offer any banananananas to my friends at Bt Timah? Hee...hee...